


The Almost Moment

by AuroraDefae



Category: Marvel
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-09
Updated: 2018-02-05
Packaged: 2018-12-13 02:32:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11750238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AuroraDefae/pseuds/AuroraDefae
Summary: After a long, hard fight against Kang, the sun cracks over the horizon, and the Avengers tiredly fly home.After a long, hard fight against Kang, the sun cracks over the horizon, and the Avengers tiredly fly home.After a long, hard fight against Kang, the sun cracks over the horizon, and the Avengers tiredly fly home.After a long, hard fight against Kang, the sun cracks over the horizon, and the Avengers tiredly fly home.After a long, hard fight against Kang, the sun cracks over the horizon, and the Avengers tiredly fly home.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [starspangledsprocket](https://archiveofourown.org/users/starspangledsprocket/gifts).



> Based on the title my love Eve gave me. (The original ask is [here](http://terrasu.co.vu/post/163231873526/for-the-made-up-fic-title-post-the-almost))
> 
> She gets a chapter because she slept for once. 
> 
> (Psst. Some of the exposition is based off an ask [here](http://starspangledsprocket.tumblr.com/post/137218816714/less-avengers-teasing-and-more-sassy-protective))

The first months of their shared residence in the tower, they were silent.

 

What was shaping in the newspapers as “the Incident” had seemed to shock and scar them all. The view out of any window showed the battle damage surrounding them, the hordes of people gathering to protest as if it was the Avenger’s fault. 

 

Slowly, Manhattan was rebuilt, and they started to emerge from their shock.

 

After months of silently coasting around each other , maybe with a murmur or two, they started arguing. Fury had had them taken off the active duty list for a long recovery period, and everyone was getting restless being trapped in the tower. It took several more months before they started to get used to living in close quarters with the others.

 

Soon, Bruce was using his Doctorate to police their health, making sure they took care of themselves. Natasha was intimidating but kind under all her layers of training and experience. Clint cracked jokes to distract them whenever one of them looked out to see a skyscraper still being rebuilt, or the news blasted them for the damage. Tony did what he knew, showering them with gifts when he saw how meager (nonexistent) their possessions were outside of their battle gear. He studied their fighting tactics in the training room, working ceaselessly in his workshop to make sure they stayed safe once they were called back to duty. 

 

In truth, Tony couldn’t forget dying. 

 

He had been in a vomit comet (once, on a dare from Rodney) but that could not have prepared him for true zero G. His blood pumping discordantly as his head seemed to swell and his body froze from the chill of the vacuum. His life slipping, no- grating away in shocks and gasps as his lungs emptied and his body screamed. The feeling of the shrapnel starting to stab his heart. 

 

Tony felt he was in his own little wormhole he was so distant from the others as they quickly became a family. 

 

It was one night, Tony sitting at the kitchen island, hunched over a holoscreen of code, that it happened. 

 

As was typical, Steve and Clint were arguing over the best way to cook dinner (Steve hated the microwave with a vengeance ever since he exploded a tomato-based casserole in it, somehow covering part of the kitchen. Bruce had walked in, thought it was blood, fainted, hulked out-) 

 

Natasha had just intervened from the table, complaining that she was hungry and _would you two get over your crap_ when Clint darkly muttered something indistinct. There was a awkward silence and then there was the loudest, happiest laughter Tony had ever heard echoing around the kitchen. He looked up towards the laughter, feeling himself melting and riveted. 

 

Steve was leaning against the counter to support himself, the other hand across his ribs as he threw his head back and roared in between gasping breaths. His eyes were closed as his face scrunched up in a wild, raw smile, radiance beaming out of him as Tony felt his jaw drop a bit. A lot. He wasn’t sure, but he knew he needed to get out of the room. 

 

Tony fled, slapping the lift’s doors until they opened, darting in quickly before sinking against a wall.

 

_ Shit.  _

 

X

 

Quantum manipulations of the time stream they existed in were cool. In theory. 

 

After what felt like a twelve hour battle with Kang, Tony’s head was spinning, his armor was sparking, bent in some places so it was pressing into him as he tried to shed it in the Avenjet. 

 

Minus some grumbling, the others were silent from pure exhaustion, Natasha almost stabbing herself in the leg as she collapsed tiredly in the cockpit, cussing when the sun broke over the horizon and straight into her eyes. 

 

There was a brief scream from Clint as Natasha’s knife came within inches of his head as she tiredly threw it into the back, rubbing her leg. 

 

Steve brushed against Tony on his way to a seat, and Tony felt himself freeze, blushing before fumbling out of the rest of his armor. 

 

Natasha leaned around the chair of the cockpit, checking to see they were all sitting down before lifting up, blasting in the direction of the tower. 

 

-

 

Tony must have fallen asleep, because next thing he knew, someone was trying to wake him. He tried to slap the arms shaking him away. H _e was so damn tired- couldn’t they let him sleep-_

 

“Come on, Tony, you’ll regret sleeping there.”

 

He cracked an eye open, Steve slowly coming into view as he blinked his eyes open, squinting in the early morning light. 

 

Steve was leaning over him, hair messy, face soft from having just woken up. The others were gone, having dragged themselves or each other off to their rooms. 

 

Still mostly asleep, Tony sluggishly smiled. “Hey.” 

 

Steve raised an eyebrow, tugging on Tony’s arm again. “Come on, you don’t want to fall asleep on the Avenjet.”

 

_Wait_.

 

“Fuck it’s you.” Tony shot up, panicking, Steve taking a step back as Tony shot off the Avenjet. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Grammarly checks Archive? Neat. This is still ehh though, it's been a while & I had to force myself to write. Hoping to finish this by March 13th. Also Tony is an idiot.

Tony wanted to lock himself in his workshop, but Jarvis refused to take the lift anywhere but the common area, and he was too tired to walk down five flights of stairs. Plus there was the smell of Clint’s pancakes wafting toward him. Taking a deep breath, he stumbled out of the lift, the doors promptly shutting behind him. 

 

Natasha was dead asleep on the table, a small pillow shoved under her head and a blanket around her shoulders, her red hair eased out of its tight bun and haloed around her. Peaceful silence hung over the kitchen, Clint busy at the stove as Bruce tried to read the newspaper without falling asleep. Clint acknowledged Tony over his shoulder with the spatula, and Tony grunted in acknowledgment. They could vaguely hear Thor’s snores from the couch in the other room, mjoriner bumping quietly into the coffee table as he dreamed. 

 

He could feel his heart pounding in the quiet, and his wired nerves from the battle were making his hands shake. Tony vaguely noticed he had a small pain in his arc reactor but decided it wasn’t enough to necessitate concern, settling into a bar chair at the island. Jarvis brought up his customized morning holo screens, and he flipped through them, balancing his head on one of his hands. 

 

By the time he was fighting a belligerent, half-asleep Natasha for the maple syrup, Tony had almost forgotten about waking up to see Steve Looking Like That™ when Steve walked in, Tony forgetting completely about the jar he was fighting for. Natasha dumped half of the container on her stack of pancakes before roughly shoving it into his chest, making Tony wince. _Ow_.

 

“Tony-” 

 

He blinked through the pain spasming in his chest to see Steve looking at him with concern, Natasha frozen in an _oh shit_ expression. Tony opened his mouth to answer, closing it, his mouth dry. 

 

“Did Kang or one of his minions get you? Do you need medical-” 

 

Azure eyes, crinkling on the sides in concern. Body half tensed as if to jump tow-

 

Shit. 

 

And then because his brain to mouth filter was so horrible-

 

“Shit.” He shut his eyes, taking a deep breath before opening them again. “I’m okay. It’s okay. Just...um.. pancakes.” 

 

Tony promptly turned his back on them, walking to his place at the island as casually as he could. 

 

“Steve.” 

 

Natasha’s voice was soft as he reprimanded him for something, and Tony’s hands and resolve shook. 

 

“Look, the Palladium is still exiting my system. That’s all this is.”

  
  
  


“To-”

 

“Look, Nat, Jarvis will tell us if we should be worried. Your pancakes are getting cold.”

 

“Jarvis?”

  
  


“Since you did find that loophole, I am required by my programming to do so.”

  
  


“See, Nat? Now eat.”


End file.
